What happened
While operating under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), a charter flight was transiting from Johannesburg toward Skukuza when the crew encountered difficulties maintaining navigation. The flight crew reported being unable to establish a signal from the Non-Directional Beacon (NDB).
Because of degraded visibility conditions, the decision was made to divert the flight to Hoedspruit Airport. During the descent phase of this diversion, the aircraft type struck a hill, resulting in a crash. The impact caused the total destruction of the airframe. There were 30 injuries reported among the occupants, but no fatalities occurred during the accident.
Findings
Investigations into the accident suggest that the crew believed they were nearing Hoedspruit Airport when the impact actually occurred. At the time of the crash, the aircraft was located approximately 67 km southwest of the intended destination. The primary contributing factor was a malfunction of the Automatic Direction Finder (ADF), which led to significant navigational errors.